Recent Tasting Notes

Well, I finally did it, I finally stopped dragging my feet and playing the avoid at all cost game and went to the doctor. Other than helping me with my really messed up asthma, my new doctor could not do much except set me up with appointments with four different specialists. Good thing I finally have good insurance! I am not looking forward to the testing and experimenting with all the various medications I am going to have to try. Sigh, at least I will have tea to keep me sane.

Today’s tea is The Diplomat by Java Tea Co, a company that creates tea blends that taste like famous coffee drinks but as a healthy alternative. This little gem is made in the image of Caramel Macchiatto, created from (all organic) Rooibos, Green Tea, Chicory Root, Barley, Cornflowers, Almonds, Caramel Creme, Natural Flavors and Polyphenol Extract. The aroma is very much so true to the idea of a Caramel Macchiatto with caramel, sweetness, cream, and coffee’s earthiness. There is also a mild floral hint and a touch of woodiness. I actually found the caramel sweetness a little too sweet, but I feel that way about the aroma of the coffee equivalent.

The brewed leaves bring out more of that coffee aroma (from the chicory) with nutty and woody qualities. The creamy, caramel sweetness is also still present but more subdued. The tea without the steeping leaves has strong coffee notes along with faint floral and intense caramel sweetness. I still find the aroma a bit too sweet for my liking, which is saying something considering how much of a sweet tooth I have.

I am going to admit to not being fond of this tea right off the bat, it did nothing for me. I thought the taste was too much like low quality watered down bitter coffee with too much sweetness. It reminded me of gas station lattes and I am not a fan. There are also notes of woodiness from the rooibos and root like earthiness from the chicory. I probably dislike this tea because of the chicory, it is an herb that just makes me go blech. I decided to add a little cream to the tea and that made it a little more palatable, the taste of the chicory was milder and the bitterness mostly faded. The aftertaste is mildly sweet, which is my favorite part of this tea. On a side note (I feel a little bad bashing this tea) I included this one in my annual Advent Tea Calender and it was a big hit, so I am glad others enjoyed it more than I did.

Thanks for the big bag of this TastyBrew! I’m really enjoying the giant chocolate chunks in this. The mocha flavor is light in this one. Which is ok because it’s not overpowering the rooibos. The flavors actually blend well with the rooibos. Lovely :) thank you again!

I think perhaps, these Java Tea Co. teas are just not the tea for me. It’s not to much the tasting like coffee, since i do love a good coffee, but i just don’t like the way the flavours mesh together. Tastybrew sent this one my way, and while i don’t hate it, i don’t like it much and i’m trying not to keep teas around that i don’t like. So this is getting tossed in the swap box in case any of the girls here want to try it out. Maybe they’ll find a happy place with this one. Thanks though tastybrew! glad i got the chance to try all of these :)

Thank you so much Shelley Lorraine, for the samples you sent me a while back. This one is interesting because it is rooibos mixed with green tea (that must be hojicha if it doesn’t get bitter after six minutes.) I really love it. It tastes like a cappuccino somehow. And the rooibos doesn’t scratch my throat at all…. I can’t even tell its a rooibos. However, the second steep tastes a bit like tobacco, so the first cup was way better. But this one is dreamy. It’s sweet and somehow the steep color is dark, even though it is a blend that intentionally avoided caffeine. I’ll savor this sample!

Sipdown! Lol I’m like an addict who just can’t stop….plus I’m soooooooooo bored. I’m about to crack open my box set of Roald Dahl books to see how many of them i can read tonight since I’ve watched a lot of TV.

Trying this one again, I think I’ve landed on being ok with this brew, though I’d rather just drink coffee. The flavour isn’t bad, but for something like this, I’d really rather just have that delicious coffee flavour…coffee…chocolate……mmmmm

Thanks for sharing though tastybrew! I was super curious about these ones!

Which is your favourite, I think I read Charley and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach before I abandoned kid’s lit and yes if I am honest I was stuck up about it… Then on the other hand my mother introduced me to Jean
Auel’s books when I became interested in prehistory before I was in grade 3.

Sipdown! Another tea from tastybrew. I like this one less than the other. I don’t really get the whole caramel macchiato flavour. It’s an “ok” tea, but I’d rather have the other one, an did rather just drink the actual coffee beverage over that one. Still though, happy to have tried it :)

Tried this today via tastybrew though I didn’t have much time to really pay attention to it. Thankfully I’ve got more to play with when we’re up at the cottage and I can take time to drink tea on the edge of the dock :)

I didn’t love Java Tea Co’s Revolutionary as much as I expected to UNTIL I brewed it in a mocha pot, as recommended. The vanilla flavoring was so much stronger the second time around. If you’ve got a mocha pot, use it to brew your Java Tea. Use it to brew ALL your tea. If you don’t have one, get one! Purchasing a bunch more of this tea for my whole family to try.

WOW. Java Tea Co’s Revolutionary is… revolutionary. An incredible vanilla latte replica, but way, way healthier. By far my new favorite loose leaf tea. A friend of mine told me about Java Tea Co as we’d been talking about healthier alternatives to coffee. Excited to see what’s next for Java, but for now—I’m a Revolutionary man.

Really amazing coffee flavor in this one. I wasn’t sure how I’d like the caramel, but my sister and I both enjoyed the subtle sweetness. Great for anyone looking for a healthier substitute for their coffee needs.

My sister recently purchased a sample pack and we both spent a morning tasting Java Tea Co’s amazing products. I LOVED this one—the cinnamon spiced mocha is my new favorite start to any day. I’ve already shared this with so many friends. Flavorful and delicious, great for all occasions.

Just received a sample pack of Java Tea Co’s products and this one is definitely my favorite. A delicious and healthy alternative to a vanilla bean latte, it offers a really tasty blend of green tea and rooibos… Really excited about what Java Tea Co is up to and can’t wait to see what’s next!

Forgot that I tried this again today. This time with some black tea added. Made the rooibos even stronger. Ugh. Took one sip and dumped it into a jar to save for my mom. This is so not the tea for me. Rooibos and I are not friends at all.

So I bought this late at night and didnt read the ingredients very carefully. Turns out this is a mostly rooibos tea. There’s some green, but the rooibos wins the battle. It actually is good for a rooibos but that stupid aftertaste still comes through. My mom loved this as it does have some coffee flavor in it. For some reason when I ordered it, I thought it was a black tea. I’m thinking next time I’ll mix some black in cause the caramel flavor in this is good. Anybody know of any other tricks for masking the rooibos aftertaste?

Thanks for sending this one Shelley Lorraine! I was having a tough time deciding a tea this morning so I might have waited for this one to cool too long. (I should really start picking a tea before I boil the water.) When I saw the HUGE chocolate pieces, I just knew it had to be boiling. I tried one of the chocolate pieces and it was actually delicious. Again, I thought by green tea they meant actual green tea and not the roasted again. I can’t really tell which it is, since after steeping I did see some green leaves and not the roasted ones. It doesn’t taste green and it would make sense it would be the roasted leaves. It was tough to see them in the package, since the blend is mostly chocolate and rooibos. But the flavor is nice! I really like it. It’s very smooth and the flavors really blend well together for me. It’s malty chocolatey goodness! The barley adds a nice flavor too. I don’t know why they avoided black tea in this one if there is so much chocolate… there is still caffeine here anyway. But I’ll really savor the rest of my little pouch of this!

This is the third Java Tea Co., coffee-wannabe blend that I received from TastyBrew. Of the three, I like this one the least. I can definitely detect the attempts at a coffee clone (if it’s going for mocha, epic fail!), but it just came out all wrong. It tastes like someone spilled some sort of fruit juice (or something, I don’t know) into a cup of perfectly good coffee. I’m not really picking up the chocolate flavor, but the almond is going strong.

Preparation

I made this one yesterday when I was sampling a couple of others as well. This one came to me from TastyBrew. Of the three I sampled at the time (incl. Disney Mad Hatter and Java Tea Co Revolutionary) I liked this one the least. I was surprised at how little the rooibos stood out in both this one and in the Revolutionary. In this one, though, it seemed like the caramel flavor was trying too hard to take over and it ended up producing a strange musty flavor. It was still drinkable, but not something I’d want to have again.